PERCEPTION AND EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOUR

Submitted in
partial fulfilment of a course on
FMOB, 1st Semester, 2019

BY:
Nihal Goyal (19133)
Nishant Mohan (19137)
Nitesh Kumar (19139)
Priyansh Bachani (19150)
Revant Chaudhary (19162)
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page No.

Serial No.

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 2-22

3 Conclusion 23

4 Bibliography 24

INTRODUCTION
Perception is a process by which a person judges his/her work environment on the basis of some
work environment stimuli in order to give meaning to their environment. This process highly
influences the way a person behaves in the workplace.
This is an involuntary process that every person does and thus cannot be stopped. But a lot of
times people tend to make errors in the perception process where they misjudge a certain set of
stimuli and thus form a wrong opinion of a person or a situation. This phenomenon is called
perceptual errors.
One of the toughest tasks of a manager is to tackle these perceptual errors and to ensure that they
themselves do not make them and not let someone’s first impression cloud their judgment. Apart
from this, a manager should also ensure that the employees working under him do not make such
errors.
Individual differences in employees make the process of perception unique for different people.
These differences have a direct effect on behaviour of an employee, every person is unique
because of his perception, people with different perceptions have different traits, desires, how
they perceive the world and other individuals and interact differently with bosses, co-workers,
subordinates and customers.
Work culture of an organisation is also very crucial in creating an environment of openness, trust
and collaboration, which provides multi-fold benefits to the organisation and society as a whole.
Perception of work culture is an important factor in influencing the performance and behaviour of
the employees.
Taking a look back in the work culture and perceptive behaviour in the 1900s, organisations were
seen as stable environments which were not subject to the changing landscape which we witness
in the competitive environment of today’s corporate world. Most organisations resorted to
securing the loyalty of employees by providing them job security. However, in the current
scenario, with organisations practising downsizing and restructuring, job security and corporate
loyalty are becoming a rare sight, due to this, organisations are facing problems dealing with
employee commitment. With no guarantee of job security, workers look at other aspects of job
such as safe and growth oriented working environments, access to proper training and guidance,
and a proper work-life balance. Organisations faced the difficult task of keeping the employees
committed to the organisation and the work.
This gave rise to the concept of Employee empowerment which is a modern management
approach that came into being at the end of 1980s as a result of global competition and
technological developments. Employee empowerment refers to delegation of authority and
explains the conditions under which employees are motivated, their confidence in their
knowledge and skills increases, they can act independently, they can keep events under control
and they act in line with organizational objectives. Another popular modern management
approach is the HRM or the Human Resource Management approach. Supporters of the role of
the human resource management function in organizations have long held that effective human
resource management (HRM) practices are key to the competitiveness and effectiveness of firms.
LITERATURE REVIEW
 The Impact of perception on Work behaviour

OBJECTIVE

Proving a relationship between perception and work behaviour by providing some view points
and empirical results. The topics perception process, perceptual grouping and perceptual errors
have been studied to show this relationship.

PERCEPTION PROCESS

“Perception process is defined as the cognitive process, by which an individual selects, organizes
and gives meaning to environmental stimuli.” (The Impact of perception on Work behaviour - Dr
Amir Abou Elnaga - Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review
Vol. 2, No.2; Oct. 2012)
The Perceptual process includes observing, selection and translating the work environment
stimuli into responses.
The work environment stimuli include Manager style, noise, technology, peers, reward system,
compensation plan and career opportunities.
The process of observing includes the five senses, i.e. sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch.
Selection includes selecting the stimuli to be perceived generally based on factors such as size,
intensity, etc.
Translation shows that people generally have a tendency to perceive stimuli which they
emotionally attached to or stimuli that satisfy their needs.
Based on this perception process, people form a response to the stimulus. The main three internal
responses are attitudes, motivation and feelings.

PERCEPTUAL GROUPING

Perceptual grouping is the process of grouping together stimuli after being selected based on
some common patterns. This can be done in accordance with:-
 The law of nearness
 The law of similarity
 The law of closure
 The law of figure and ground
Schema- “The framework of embodying descriptions of people, objects or situations.”( The
Impact of perception on Work behavior - Dr . Amir Abou Elnaga - Kuwait Chapter of Arabian
Journal of Business and Management Review Vol. 2, No.2; Oct. 2012) Some of the useful
schemas used by managers are:-
 Personal-based
 Self-based
 Role-based
 Event-based

PERCEPTUAL ERRORS

1. Stereotyping: Stereotyping is a process under translation which involves assigning

certain attributes or association certain qualities with a group of people based on
certain past actions. If done rightly this could be a great strategic advantage for the
person.. Stereotypes based on religion, ethnicity, nationality etc. are mostly wrong.
Thus we should always keep in mind the limitations and dangers of stereotyping.
Stereotypes, if used carefully can be helpful, however prejudice are never helpful.
Scapegoating is an extreme form of prejudice in which we blame one person or an
entire group for the wrongdoings of another member of the same group.
2. Selective and Divided Attention: Selective attention means giving priority to a certain
set of tasks while keeping the rest on hold. This phenomenon is referred to as
bottleneck by psychologists. When more than one situation requires a person’s
attention, he/she tends to divide his/her attention so as to do all the functions
simultaneously. This phenomenon is called divided attention. It is done when the
person is multitasking. When participating in either of the two phenomena, there is a
chance that people may make errors.
3. Halo Effect: The halo effect occurs when a person allows one important or noticeable
characteristic of another person to bias the evaluation, perception, or impression of
that person.” (The Impact of perception on Work behavior - Dr . Amir Abou Elnaga -
Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review Vol. 2,
No.2; Oct. 2012) These judgments might not be true and thus halo effect is a
perceptual error.
4. Similar to me error: A lot of people perceive others by comparing them to themselves
by setting themselves as a benchmark. While doing this, people tend to misjudge
others. This perceptual error is called similar-to-me-error.
5. Needs and Perception: Perception process is different for different people. This is
because different people have different needs and desires. Thus different people
perceive different stimuli differently.
WORK BEHAVIOUR

Work behaviour is the sum total of all the activities a person does in a work environment
including talking to a co-worker or manager, typing a memo, learning new skills etc. There are
main three components, namely, productivity, performance and creativity. Work behaviour is
affected by perception, ability and skills, and attitudes.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES INFLUENCING WORK BEHAVIOUR

1. Hereditary Factors: Some research says that hereditary factors play an important role
in defining the basic qualities of a person. However, this argument is difficult to
explain and many times even controversial. There are two types of attributes that
make people different from others, these are primary(fixed) attributes and
secondary(changeable) attributes. Primary attributes include age, gender, ethnicity etc.
while secondary attributes include marital status, religious belief, health etc.

2. Abilities and Skills: Ability is a person’s capability to tackle problems both mental
and physical Some of the key abilities in employees are mental abilities, emotional
intelligence and tactic knowledge.

3. Attitude : Attitude is referred as the general behaviour of person in a work

environment and is linked with perception, personality, feelings and motivation. There
are three main components of attitude:-

 Cognition

 Affect

 Behaviour

One of the roles of managers is to change the attitude of their employees. This process
is dependent on three factors :-

 The communicator

 The message

 The situation

4. Personality : Personality is defined as set of qualities based on a person’s thinking

process, emotions and behaviour which defines how they will react in a social
situation. One of the most reliable methods of judging a person’s personality is based
 on the Big 5 Model of Personality traits which judges a person on the basis of
conscientiousness, introversion-extroversion, agreeableness, openness to experience
and emotional stability. The relationship between personality and behaviour is a very
complex matter that a manger must understand in order to manage his/her employees.

Perception of Work Culture and its Impact on Employee Behaviour

Culture is the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings,
hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and
material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations
through individual and group striving.

Work culture is a combination of qualities in an organization and its employees that arise from
what is generally regarded as appropriate ways to think and act. The work culture of an
organization is a product of its history, traditions, values, and vision. It is the pattern of basic
group assumptions that have worked well enough to be considered valid, and, therefore, are
taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel. Work culture of the
organisation is very crucial in creating an environment of openness, trust and collaboration,
which provides multi-fold benefits to the organisation and society as a whole. Perception of work
culture is an important factor in influencing the performance and behaviour of the employees.
A healthy work culture leads to satisfied employees and an increased productivity, while
organizations with characteristics like larger power distance, communication barriers, less
support and delegation downwards, generally have employees silently taking up their jobs and
have minimal involvement with the workplace, which is not a desired attitude.

Open communication culture is an important factor affecting the behaviour of the employees.
“Open Communication culture is a culture in which non confidential and non- proprietary
information is actively and freely shared across all hierarchical levels with leaders' proactive
participation” (Aprix R. , ‘Cultivating a culture of open communication’ , August 2011).

The existing degree of openness in any organisational culture is determines the acceptance of
two- way communication in that system. If the leaders of the organisation strongly support
openness, then the organisation is more likely to be tolerant to expression of contrary or diverse
opinions from employees. This kind of environment at workplace ultimately leads to greater
amount of idea generation and thereby promoting creativity and innovation at all the levels in the
organisation. Open communication culture has a strong positive relationship with employee
involvement and satisfaction.

Objectives:

• To find out relationship between various drivers of organisational culture and employee
behaviour in the organisation.

• To explore the relationship amongst different variables of organisational Culture.

Research Design & Methodology

The research study finds out the opinions and perceptions of the employees of an organization.
Survey research methodology was adopted and the data was collected by both primary and
secondary method. The questionnaire was prepared by exploring literature review in form of
secondary information, which was collected with the help of published research papers, and
websites. The questions in the questionnaire give the researcher a scope to find out factors that
build the organisational culture and have a lot of impact on employees' behaviour and attitude
towards work and organisation. The population of the study consists of employees of various
organisations across country. The total sample size consists of 60 respondents. The sample
selection technique adopted for getting the 60 questionnaires filled in Simple Probability.

The people surveyed were asked to give their views on the following factors influencing work
culture and employee behaviour –

A. Openness

B. Confrontation
 C. Trust

D. Proaction

E. Collaboration

F. Autonomy

G. Career development

Results, Data Analysis and Interpretations:

The questions in the survey questionnaire were measured on a 5-point liker scale of strongly
agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree. Following is the result of the survey
STRONGLY STRONGLY
AGREE DISAGREE
AGREE DISAGREE
OPENNESS 27% 42% 22% 9%
CONFRONTATION 7% 44% 20% 29%
TRUST 10% 58% 22% 10%
PROACTION 15% 47% 7% 31%
COLLABORATION 8% 49% 29% 14%
AUTONOMY 10% 44% 34% 12%
CAREER
5% 49% 22% 24%
DEVELOPMENT

Note: None of the respondents gave the response as neutral in any of the questions.

 69% of the respondents feel that openness is there in the organisation- employees
experience freedom of expression of ideas, there is also a scope of two way
communication and they participate freely in the decision making process of the
organisation.

 51% of the employees feel free to confront if they are not in sync with the ideas or
decisions taken up by their superior, while remaining 49% said that they simply abide by
the orders or decision of their superior inspite of presence of culture of openness because
probably their upbringing, past experience or some situational factors do not permit this.

 68% of respondents feel the presence of trust in the organisation, whereas 32% responded
negatively.
  62% of the respondents are proactive at the work place while remaining 38% do not show
high degree of proactivity.

 57% of the employees feel that there is collaboration amongst them while remaining feel
otherwise.

 54% feel that they exercise autonomy at workplace and the remaining 46% do not feel the
same.

 54% of the respondents agree that the organisation provides development opportunities to
their employees whereas remaining 46% have different opinion.

By finding Pearson’s correlation coefficient among various elements of work culture, we can
draw the following conclusions:-

 Pearson’s correlation coefficient is 0.308 for experience and decision making. Thus, we
can say that the decision making power of the employee increases with experience and the
autonomy is given to employees to take important decision for the organization.

 Open door policy is positively correlated to confrontation (0.489) which says that the
organization culture promotes open door policy to solve any grievance so that they work
together to achieve the common goal.

 Collaboration and team work are also positively correlated (0.337). Collaboration
increases among the members of team, to ensure guidance from the top level,
coordination among the middle level and support from the lower order to get things done
well. Through this teamwork also increases and the work runs smoothly.

 With high clarity in decision making the recognition of an employee increases, he/she is
properly recognized with rewards in the organization and at the same time the quality of
learning also improves.

 The working environment of the organization is very positive which significantly

responds to the employee needs and preference. Open door policy significantly increases
the quality of learning as the managers are always keen to help the employees as well as
encourages them.

 Work environment positively supports the career development and advancement of the
employees. The culture of the organization positively responds to employee needs and
preferences.
  As the decision making ability and pro activeness increases, the ability to discharge
responsibilities also increases.

From the above analysis it is observed that most of the respondents feel that elements like
openness, confrontation, trust, proactiveness, team building, collaboration, autonomy and career
development are the building blocks of the culture significantly influence employees behaviour.
It has also been seen that there is a strong positive correlation between various elements of
culture. When an organisation promotes openness, accommodates employee needs and
preferences, the elements like pro activeness, better team spirit, confrontation and better conflict
management at personal and professional level come in to force and result in greater employee
involvement and engagement.

Thus it can be inferred that organisations must develop a conducive organisational culture and
also work extensively towards promoting its elements, so that a positive perception about the
same can be created in the eyes of employees and can influence their behaviour in a positive
manner.

Promoting Employee Service Behaviour the Role of Perceptions of

Human Resource Management Practices and Service Culture

In this paper, it has been discussed how employee perception towards Human Resource
Management (HRM) practices predicts their behaviour towards customers in the service
industry.
 It also sought to contrast the role of satisfaction with HRM practices with that of employees'
perceptions of how service-oriented their organization's culture was, based on the position of
marketing theorists that a service culture is fundamental to promoting service behaviour. In
particular, fulfilment with authority also, with work requests was the most grounded indicators of
administration conduct. Administration culture didn't direct the relationship between impression
of HRM practices and administration conduct. Talk concentrated on elective clarifications for the
connection between authoritative practices and administration conduct and on the suggestions for
associations wishing to advance help conducts.
 

In this research, an airline company with a sample of 1000 flight attendants who directly serve
the customer was surveyed as to their firm’s HR practices. This examination can be added to the
little however developing assemblage of experimental proof about the relationship between HRM
rehearses and hierarchical results. Reliable with different examinations inside assistance
associations, this investigation has indicated that worker fulfilment with explicit HRM practices
is fundamentally related to self-announced worker conduct comprising quality help. This
investigation indicated that with authority and work requests had a huge direct impact on
administration conduct just as having a circuitous impact through help culture. This backing the
position of the individuals who backer the utilization of HRM practices to accomplish the results
of vital significance to firms. It also addresses the presentation by firms of inward showcasing
projects planned for improving representatives' fulfilment also, inspiration. Promoters of interior
showcasing are upheld in their case that HRM practices help make a client situated assistance
culture. Predictable with this is the contention that fulfilment with HRM practices influences
work execution legitimately or through some summed up by and large sentiment of fulfilment. 

Perceptions of human resource practices increase employees' motivation to provide high-quality

service. To start with, worker administration inspiration might be expanded because of summed
up fulfilment with and connection to the association. Positive impression of HRM practices may
expand recognizable proof with and duty to the association, which may in tum increment
representatives' consistence with or disguise of authoritative standards for nature of
administration a second conceivable persuasive impact might be grounded in the need to look
after value. That is, workers might be persuaded to give more excellent help as to the degree that
people think about themselves to others inside an association and experience HRM rehearses
similarly, value recognitions would tend not to contrast as a component of HRM practices of re-
establishing view of reasonableness. Third, HRM practices may serve to impart administrations'
desires with regards to the allure of client administration and along these lines directing affect
workers' inspiration. The proportions of HRM practices utilized in this investigation didn't survey
the degree to which administration related objectives were set for representatives. Without such
unequivocal objectives, representatives may look to other HRM rehearses for prompts when
setting their own, understood objectives. l the idea of the immaterial parts of administration
behaviour. The showcase of positive feeling by workers toward clients is, as we contended, a
significant part of the up close and personal communication among clients and representatives,
however, is especially hard for businesses to screen and control. For administration associations
to incorporate passionate presentations in the presentation assessment of representatives would be
unpredictable and exorbitant. The carrier overviewed here didn't. Without evaluation of this part
of execution, it is reasonable that neither fulfilment with the examination of execution nor with
coming about remunerations were related to administration conduct. Notwithstanding or rather
than inspirational clarifications, HRM practices may advance help culture and conduct by
expanding representatives' capacity to give great assistance. As work requests increment,
administration workers are less ready to give great help. On the other hand, progressively sensible
remaining burdens encourage more positive full of feeling demeanours and thus the feelings that
administration labourers show. Moreover, regardless of the consideration and vitality
representatives decide to coordinate toward clients, administration conduct is likely a capacity of
the requests of the activity and representatives' capacity. Workers might be enlisted and chose
based on a help direction and administration conveyance expertise, and prepared in the
arrangement of high-quality help. This would be bolstered by research indicating that the degree
to which enrolment, determination, and preparing rehearses are administration related is related to
administration execution. While preparing may fill a persuasive need, its essential capacity is
regularly the advancement of employees' capacity to perform successfully. Once more, be that as
it may, no relationship was found between fulfilment with preparing and administration conduct
in this examination. Finally, the contribution of HRM is vital as it proportionally affects the
performance of the employee towards the customers.
 

Results

In this research paper, it is highlighted that a relationship between satisfaction with HRM
practices and the behaviour of the employees can be shown at the organizational level. Also, it
talks about HRM practices contribute to service-oriented behaviour and independently contribute
to better satisfaction of the customers from the service provided to them.

But, there are many limitations in the paper such as the research is based on the single-source
data collected directly from the employees themselves which raises a possibility of bias in the
data as the employee may or may not be true about the information provided by them. The data
appear to provide discrimination between measures. If service behaviour improves as a result of
employees' satisfaction with how they are treated by the organization, then organizations that
want to improve their service ought to consider how they treat their employees. The specifics of
how to do this have been laid out much more completely than is possible here by some authors
(e.g., Berry, Parasuraman, & Zeithaml, 1994; Pfeffer, 1995; Reichheld, 1993; Schneider &
Bowen, 1995; Schneider, Gunnarson, & Niles-Jolly, 1994).

The organizing willing to improve their customer experience would obviously to commit to
changing their approach to managing their employees. But this varies from companies to
companies as it is dependent on the how employee-oriented structure is followed by the
organization. As Bowen and Lawler (1995) have said, "employees don't just suddenly feel
empowered because managers tell them they are or because companies issue statements saying it
is part of the culture. Organizations must change their policies, practices, and structures to create
and sustain empowerment" (p. 73). Bowen and Lawler defined empowerment as the
implementation of practices that distribute power, information, knowledge, and rewards
throughout the organization, typically through the replacement of control-oriented approaches to
management by high-involvement approaches.

Throughout our discussion, we have emphasized the importance of employee-oriented HRM

practices in organizations that deliver services rather than produce goods. The obvious question
then is whether practices of this kind are relevant only or especially to service firms, or whether
they are relevant to all firms. A further question is whether they are relevant only to service firms
adopting a high-quality as opposed to a low-cost strategy. In both, the question here {and oft
posed elsewhere; e.g. Becker & Gerhart, 1996) is whether the contribution of HRM practices to
firm performance is universal or contingent on its fit with the firm's strategy. In other words,
should practitioners in all or only some organizations pay attention to these results?
Unfortunately, the answer is complicated by the range of the things we chose to include in our
examination of HRM practices, by the variety of ways they can be structured, and by the
complications of what constitutes fit with an organization's strategy (Becker & Gerhart, 1996).
While the answer to the strategic fit question may not yet have been decided empirically for all
types of firms, we believe that it has been answered sufficiently clearly to warrant investment by
service firms in employee-oriented HRM practices and in supporting the service they provide.

Differences in Employees' Perception of Employee Empowerment

Practices
Employee empowerment is a cultural system and an administrative tool differing from
hierarchical culture and can be summarized as
Empowerment culture: Vision -making a partner in performance - self-control – team
responsibility – cross structures – projects – team members
Hierarchical culture: Planning – command and control – quality control – individual
responsibilities – pyramid structure – business processes – managers – employees
Analyzed in four ways, dimensions in questions are defined as (Spreitzer ve Doneson, 2005: 7-8):

 Meaning means the fit between the work-performed and beliefs, values and employee s'
judgement.
 Competence means employee’s skill for and belief in completing the requirements of the
work that is performed.
 Self-determination means individual’s capability of making one’s own decisions in any
kind of work they perform, determining one's own future and acting freely as well as
one's power of control on one's work processes and behavior.
 Impact means the degree of influencing work-related operating, strategic and
administrative outcomes.
BOWEN & LAWLER (1992) defined employee empowerment as “enabling employees to make
decision”.
For PASTOR(1996) it’s something like to allow employees to take responsibilities in their own
activities.
The primary reasons for evolution of empowerment practices are :

 Developments in information processing technology increasing competition

 Increase in the obligation of shorter response time education level and expectations
 Rising staff structure increasing trend toward democratization generally at social level
 Determination of information
 The most important source of “competitive advantage”.

Inspite of several advantages, this view loses its implications due to improper management's
decisions, improper knowledge of empowerment, behavioral change, extensive bureaucracy and
inadequate communication and in point of organization it can time-consuming, costly
empowering, loss of control over employee, slow and inconsistent delivery services.

Oya Korkmaz’s DIFFERENCE IN EMPLOYEES' PERCEPTION OF EMPLOYEE

EMPOWERMENT PRACTICES, where employee empowerment concept is discussed and,
depending on some demographic variables, differences in the perception of employee
empowerment are analyzed. It is also inferred that, among other demographic variables, position
and income status create a difference in the perception of employee empowerment. Moreover, it
is also got out that, depending on behavioral and psychological factors, employees’ perceptions
of employee empowerment differ and psychological empowerment perception is higher than
behavioral empowerment.

EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT: Employee empowerment is a new sense of management

arising from global change and competition. It refers to power distribution in the organization.
Employee empowerment is a new sense of management requiring not only freedom in behaviors
but also taking high level of responsibility. Employee empowerment is one of the most
significant tools that can be used against global and local threats.
Thanks to employee empowerment, managers lay more burdens on their employees and thus
ensure job enrichment. Employee empowerment helps personal development and professional
life development and enables employees to adopt their jobs more. Due to the fact that employee
empowerment underlies business strategy, it should be developed and implemented.
Empowerment-related management approach allows employees to take part in management.
Thus, new business methods and procedures develop and business-related problems are solved
more easily. Employee empowerment represents advanced thought in the sense of management.
It offers authority for self-decision making and new and unique point of views which could
further led them to participate in daily business related discussions. It also promote thinking,
imagination, increases productivity and also enables them to take initiatives.
In business work, where employee empowerment is implemented there it calls test for leadership
ability of managers. Leader should increase efficiency of both individuals and group. Leader
should help them by distributing equal powers and responsibilities, provides good and better
environment to make them comfortable and motivated, good quality of tools and equipment
where information is shared and making employees take risks.
As mentioned earlier the objective of the study is to reveal differences in relation to
demographic characteristics and the study was conducted on white collar employee of Turkish
Coal Institution and in two dimensions of empowerment practices i.e. behavioral and
psychological. 176 white collar employee out of 646 responded to a questionnaire form and
further to that 2 where disannulled for some reason.
Methodology and technique used: The questionnaires which are used as a data collection tool in
the research are defined in as 5-point Likert scale. In determining behavioral empowerment, the
empowerment scale developed by Niehoff et. Questionnaire method is used in collecting data.
(2001:103) is used while, in determining psychological empowerment, the empowerment scale
developed by Spreitzer (1995:1464-1465) is used. The questionnaire includes questions
measuring participants’ empowerment perceptions as well as questions about their personal and
professional qualifications. The questions of the questionnaire are prepared based on some
literature studies performed on the subject. The questionnaire form is comprised of 25 questions
including both behavioral empowerment and psychological empowerment dimensions.
Findings: Under this, participants' personal and professional data-qualifications such as age, sex,
marital status, education Level, experience position and incomes were recorded in few parameters
were the employees where further categorize in two and then effect of demographic
characteristics on empowerment perception is analyzed.
Along with techniques KMO and Bartlett’s test results are used for determining the suitability of
data for factor analysis. With some sort of calculation it was found that the data are suitable.
An independent t-test was conducted for the purpose of discovering whether there are differences
in employees perception of behavioral and psychological empowerment practices by
demographic variable. In conducting the t-test, Levene test is used to investigate whether or not
group averages variances are equal. According to the test result, if group average variance is not
found to be equal, results are reported according to changing variance status.
So one by one various hypothesis was taken in account such as
The hypothesis to be taken into account in this regard is as follows:
H0: Age does not have a significant effect on employees’ view of behavioral and psychological
empowerment factors.
H1: Age has a significant effect on employees’ view of behavioral and psychological
empowerment factors.
Concluded with the result of the t-test, H0 hypothesis is accepted over H1 hypothesis (p>0.05).

As a result of t-test (at a significance level of 0.05), it is found that, among other demographic
characteristics, age doesn’t have a significant effect on employees’ view of behavioral and
psychological empowerment factors.
Similarly, several t-test was conducted on the hypothesis based on Gender, Marital status,
Education Level, No. of years worked i.e. work experience in which they do not shown
significant effect on employees' view of behavioral and psychological empowerment factors.
Though, there were two hypothesis i.e. of position and of income status which do not showed
significant effect on employees' view of behavioral empowerment factor but did on psychological
empowerment factor.
There was a short table in which frequency, percentage distribution and arithmetic mean was
calculated in order to determine participant employees' perception of behavioral empowerment.
“Our success in business is rewarded based on performance, x' = 1.83” , “employees are
supported materially and morally, x' = 2.06; resources are equally distributed in workplace, x' =
2.13” were the leading notes on which managers should pay emphasis in respect to behavioral
empowerment.
“I have the skills necessary for my job,x'=4.16; I am sure that I have the abilities necessary for
doing my job ,x'=4.01 ; My job is very important for my ,x'=3.98 and. I have a considerable
influence on the events that occur in my department,x'= 3.17” were the leading quotes that
employee participate in psychological empowerment practices carried out in organization at
highest level.
These statements where employee expressed their positive response can inferred that mangers
were successful in the organization in psychological empowerment.
At last, hypothesis in relation to research for purpose of determining differences in employees'
perception of behavioral and psychological empowerment was done where,
H0: there’s no difference between employees' behavioral and psychological empowerment
average.
H1: Theirs is difference between employees' behavioral and psychological empowerment
average.
As seen in analysis, employee s' psychological empowerment average was x'= 3.4425 and
behavioral empowerment average was x'= 2.4761. At confidence interval of 95% sig value was
below 0.05 (p =0.000). Or we can comprehend it as, zero hypothesis shall be rejected but
alternative hypothesis shall be accepted, showing that behavioral empowerment practices are less
successful than psychological empowerment practices, reflecting that managers are not able to
adequately provide all necessary possibilities and conditions in the workplace environment to the
employees.
It is seen that, among other demographic characteristics, age, gender, marital status, education
level and number of years worked do not have any significant effect on view of behavioral and
psychological empowerment factors.
This study, which is conducted on 174 persons in relation to the employee empowerment
practices of the Turkish Coal Institution, discusses empowerment as two dimensions (behavioral
and psychological) as mentioned in the study and analyzes whether or not demographic
characteristics make any difference in employees’ perception of these two dimensions in
question.
According to the findings related to employees’ perception of psychological empowering, it is
seen that employees’ perception of psychological empowering is high in competency, meaning
and influence dimensions within the scope of psychological empowering while their perception
of empowering related to autonomy is negative.
However, it is detected that position and income status have a significant effect only on
psychological empowerment factors. Employee empowering succeeds only in an environment
where self-confident managers and employees exist.
However, reward, resource and information sharing are the leading items about which the
employees express the most negative opinions in relation to behavioral empowering. On the
grounds of being based on democratic management, employee empowering offers a sense of
participative management to organizations. Employee empowering is a concept related to the
transfer of power to employees. European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 34, Number 1
(2012) 56 Given the averages of both empowering dimensions, it is detected that employees’
perceptions of psychological empowering and behavioral empowering are different and
perception of psychological empowering (x =3.44) is more positive than perception of behavioral
empowering (x =2.47), proving that managers are not capable of providing necessary working
conditions to their employees.
Employees who are in direct contact with customers should be empowered so that organizations
live longer in a changing environment. Employee empowering is a human tool used for the
purpose of creating a qualified business environment. Being successfully implemented by many
small-scale and large-scale business enterprises, employee empowering is becoming a part of
management every other day.
 Employees’ Perception and Organizational Commitment: A Study
on the Banking Sector in Gaza, Palestine

Introduction -

This study focuses on attempting to investigate the relationship between perception of the
employees working in the banks of Gaza, Palestine and attempts to identify if there is a
correlation between their perception and their commitment towards the banks they work in. The
study aims at identifying the impact of job satisfaction, perceived job characteristics, perceived
organisational characteristics and role perception on organisational commitment, which is of
three types (affective commitment, normative commitment, and continuance commitment). More
than 200 response sheets were passed and 127 responses were received back for the study which
were then used to build regression models and further used to find correlation between the
various employee behaviour dimensions and various forms of commitments.

In the 1900s, organisations were seen as stable environments which were not subject to the
changing landscape which we witness in the competitive environment of the corporate world.
Most organisations resorted to securing the loyalty of employees by providing them job security.
However, in the current scenario, with organisations practising downsizing and restructuring, job
security and corporate loyalty are becoming a rare sight, due to this, organisations are facing
problems dealing with employee commitment. With no guarantee of job security, workers look at
other aspects of job such as safe and growth oriented working environments, access to proper
training and guidance, and a proper work-life balance. 

“According to Porter, Crampton, and Smit (1976), organizational commitment could be defined
as the feelings and beliefs formed internally or as a set of intentions that enriches and employee’s
desire to remain with an organization and to accept its major goals and values.”

Organizational commitment is conceptualized in three ways:

 Affective commitment is a sense of attachment and a feeling of belonging to the

organization. (Hartmann & Bambacas, 2000; Tan & Akhtar, 1998).
 Normative commitment is a feeling of obligation on the part of employees to maintain
employment. (Hartmann & Bambacas, 2000; Tan & Akhtar, 1998).
 Continuance commitment is an awareness of costs associated with leaving the
organization or awareness of lack of alternatives. (Hartmann & Bambacas, 2000; Tan &
Akhtar, 1998).

As seen by multiple studies and numerous researches, Organisational commitment play a major
role in affecting attitude and behaviour of the employees in the organisation, this showcases the
important role of Organisational Commitment in organizational behaviour. 

“In addition, Batemen and Strasser (1984) state that “the reasons for studying organizational
commitment are related to cognitive constructs such as job satisfaction, characteristics of the
employee’s job, and role, such as responsibility”.”

Numerous studies have demonstrated that organisational commitment has been identified to
positively impact organisational outcomes such as job satisfaction and job characteristics. In spite
of the significance of organisational commitment, little research has been undertaken in the
investigation of its importance in employee perceived job satisfaction, job characteristics,
organisational characteristics and role on organisational commitment.

Little research for organisational commitment has been conducted, for example, affective
commitment, normative commitment and conductive commitment has been undertaken in the
industrial, organisational, and occupational fields in Palestine. 

This research tries to identify the correlation of independent variables (job satisfaction, job
characteristics, organizational characteristics and role perception) could explain affective,
normative and continuance organizational commitment in the banking sector in Gaza, Palestine. 

This research will aim to explain and identify the impact of employee perception on
organisational commitment in the banking sector on Gaza, Palestine. For that, the study aims to
find the answers to the following questions :

 How is the employees’ perception towards their jobs in the banking sector in Gaza,
Palestine?

 How is organizational commitment of the employees of the banking sector in Gaza?

 Is there any significant relationship between employee perception and organizational

commitment?

“Commitment is a force that binds an individual to a course of action that is of relevance to a

particular target (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001).”
The literature states commitment as a person’s degree of connection to some parts of the work. If
an organisation centers focuses on the basic parts of structural aspects just by planning and not
doing anything to reinforce it or guide and support its workforce then there will be an absence of
commitment among them.

“Three psychological bases for organizational attachment discussed by Bennett (2000) were:

 Compliance commitment means the employee is committing to the organization because

there are high monetary and social costs to leave the organization.

 Identification commitment is commitment based on an emotional bond with the

organization and the person’s desire to be affiliated with the organization.

 Internalization commitment is internalized norms shared with the organization's goals,

values and mission. When change affects the organization’s core values employee’s
internalized organizational commitment will be eroded.”

Four challenges in organisations that diminish commitment are close to personal relationships
and related disruptions, risk to one's status, desire of maintaining the status quo, and money
related outcomes. Studies showed that fundamental changes in an organisation would reduce
internal commitments, identification commitment won’t be affected and compliance commitment
remains moderate to high during times of change. This shows the high cost of commitment
during a change process. To overcome these barriers, organisations need to keep their employees
committed to the change process. Committed employees showcase greater job satisfaction and
motivation as well as decreased amounts of turnover. Increasing employee’s involvement in the
change process can increase and boost their commitment during the change process. However, if
the employees do not share the same vision or disagree with the changing structure of the
organisation then their involvement in the change process will not affect internalized commitment
and it will not increase.

Affective Commitment - “According to Mayer and Allen (1991) Affective commitment refers to
the employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in, the organization
based on positive feelings, or emotions toward the organization.” It is believed that workers with
low affective commitment will leave a company, while workers with a high affective
commitment will remain for longer periods, as they have faith in the company and its strategies.

Continuous Commitment - “Continuance commitment refers to commitment based on the costs

that the employee associates with leaving the organization (due to the high cost of leaving).
(Mayer and Allen, 1997).” These can be attributed to non-transferable investments such as
interpersonal relationships with coworkers, retirement policies, and possessing skills unique to
that organisation. Career satisfaction is a direct measure of this, with employee fearing losing it if
they decide to leave an organisation. 

Normative Commitment - “Normative commitment refers to an employee’s feeling of

obligation to remain with the organization where it based on the employee having internalized the
values and goals of the organization. (Commerias and Fournier, 2002)” These can be attributed to
investments such as organisational dependability and participatory management. 

Job Characteristics - “Job characteristics are affection factors that influence employees’
intrinsic work motivation by the achievement of critical psychological states (Hackman &
Lawler, 1971; Hackman & Oldham, 1976).” Indicators or Job Characteristics that improve
commitment and motivation are increased sense of control, working on intrinsically satisfying
tasks and projects, autonomy reinforced by proper feedback and guidance, low monitoring and
sense of attachment towards the project and the company. Whereas, Bureaucratic rules and
procedures which inhibit workers and their creative freedom, and repetitive tasks decrease
commitment in an organisation.

Role Perception - “The absence of a distinctly defined role of employees and an amorphous
perception of their roles and responsibilities in the organization may have a downturn effect on
the employees' morale and self-esteem. Role Perception of the employees acts as one of the most
critical components in the workplaces today. It also plays a key role in an individual's
performance. A misty perception of the role may also lead to underperformance by and
underutilization of the potential of the individual. Consequently, the organization may lose not
only some vital man-hours but also some of the most competent employees, in the long run.
(Arpita Saha, 2008)”

Career Commitment - “Career commitment refers to identification with, and involvement in,
one’s occupation. Common to all these is the critical notion of being committed to one’s career,
or occupation, rather than to the organization which employs one.(Herscovitch and Meyer’s
2002)”

Work Commitment - “Work commitment refers neither to the organization nor to one’s career,
but to employment itself (Bard, 2002). Persons committed to work hold a strong sense of duty
towards their work, and place intrinsic value on work as a central life interest (Saros & Santora,
2001).”

Research Framework :
Methodology - The research used a questionnaire to collect and required data to find relation
between Employee Perception and Organisational Commitment. Two hundred questionnaires
were distributed but 127 responses were recorded, giving a response rate of 63.5% with 55.9%
males and 44.1% women, with most profiles being under 30 years old having a percentage of
55.1%. As for the marital status of the responders, single and married were the most common
ones with divorced or widowed consisting of just 1.6%. Most of the respondents were also highly
educated as 65.4% of the respondents had a basic degree. In terms of length of service provided
to the company, most were new to the organisation, with 46.5% having worked for less than 5
years in the organisation. The data was then analyzed through Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) software to compute and find the conclusions for the relevant variables. The
study made use of both advanced and simple statistical tools and methods to extensively analyze
the relationship between the different variables.
Hypothesis Result:
Results -
 
The outcomes indicated that employees of the banks in Gaza were very dedicated particularly in
the affective and continuous forms of commitment. They indicated less commitment in the
normative form. Concerning employee perception, the employees of the banks in Gaza were very
satisfied as far as their job satisfaction is concerned. Be that as it may, they were less satisfied as
far as job characteristics are concerned. Besides, the outcomes demonstrated that perceived job
characteristics and perceived organizational characteristics were seen as positively affecting and
altogether correlating with affective commitment. Role perception, in any case, was not found
correlated to affective commitment. The outcomes additionally indicated that only perceived job
satisfaction was seen positively corresponding with continuous commitment. At last, just role
perception and perceived organizational characteristics were found to have a positive relation
with normative commitment.

This study is of extreme importance to the financial segment in Gaza as it helps in understanding
the effect of employee perception on the organisational commitment. As indicated by the results,
the representatives of the banks in Gaza were very dedicated particularly in the affective and
continuous components of commitment. This is a normal outcome with regards to the workers of
Gaza, as the job can be the sole source of earning. To a large number of them, the job implies life
to them and their family and missing the job means taking the steps to have a truly hopeless life.
This would ordinarily make such workers focused on their occupations and would cause them to
do all that they can to look after it. A similar explanation could be the motivation behind why
such workers had lower normative commitment as the employees of the banks in Gaza not only
ought to stay, but they actually must stay in these banks to survive.

The motivation behind this study was to explore the connection between workers' perception and
organizational commitment. It is indicated that there is a positive connection between three
components of employee’s' perception including perceived job satisfaction, perceived job
characteristics and perceived organizational characteristics and affective commitment. In
addition, the outcomes found that among four components of employee perceptions only
perceived job satisfaction is associated with continuous commitment. Also, the outcomes showed
that two components of employee perceptions are positively related with normative commitment,
which is role perception and perceived organizational characteristics.